Kayaking on the Connecticut

One of my favorite things do to during the summer is go boating on the Connecticut River. Just down the hill from campus, the Connecticut is wide, flat, meandering, and a perfect venue for the casual paddler. After work yesterday, my friend Bill (another '09 who's on campus for a couple of weeks teaching for the Rassias Summer Language Program) and I decided to go down to the river and rent a couple of kayaks. Students can rent canoes and kayaks from the Ledyard Canoe Club either by the hour or they can get a season pass which entitles the bearer to unlimited rentals for a full year. Best part: this pass is only $35 for students! And people say you can't find a good deal these days...

So anyway, it was great to be out on the river again. I think my last time out was at the end of summer term last year, so it had definitely been awhile. I didn't take any pictures yesterday, but here's one I took while canoeing last year:

Bill and I couldn't stay out for too long because he had to get back to work and I was planning on seeing a recruiting presentation by Bain and Company. I just wanted to get an idea of what consulting is like. Turns out I really don't think it's my thing, but it's still cool to know that these kinds of firms put a lot of effort into recruiting Dartmouth students into their internship and intro-level employment programs. But back to kayaking...

An hour gave us enough time for a loop around Gilman Island, which is about half a mile south of the canoe club. Gilman's a cool place to hang out, and there's even a cabin run by Ledyard that Dartmouth students can rent for a night ($10/person) and stay in. I've done this a few times - once with the Cords - and it's so much fun. There's a fire pit and enough wood around to roast marshmellows all through the night, and inside there's a little stove and bunks to sleep on. Definitely a great way to spend a night.

Getting back to the dock, I ran into some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in awhile. Jill, for instance, has been off campus for a year it seems, doing internships and study abroad programs. She's a '09, but she's taking classes this summer because she took an extra off term this past year. And one of my old UGA staff was there too. He's an '08 - just graduated - and he's up visiting for a few days, so it was nice to run into him. This reminds me of one of my favorite things about Dartmouth: it's size. With 4,000 undergraduates, Dartmouth has the critical mass necessary for the variety of programs its students demand and there are definitely enough people to keep you busy and interested here. But at the same time, you don't feel anonymous. You can walk though the library and recognize people you know. You'll never get to know everybody, but it's so nice to feel like wherever there is a group of people, you know someone in it.

I was talking to someone the other day about the setting of Dartmouth - in a small town in New Hampshire, as opposed to, say, metropolitan New York a suburb of Boston. And he said a very interesting thing: "In a city, you see more people. In Hanover, you get to know more people." I think that's a pretty accurate description, and it's something I've come to really appreciate. That of course, and kayaking on the Connecticut.